While observing student behavior this week in the middle school, I noticed that almost all of the students were involved and on task during the lesson. This weeks lesson was a lab where the students were measuring the forces needed to pull a rubber band specific distances. The first class to perform this lab had only one student off task. The second class had two students off task. In the first class, a young boy kept putting his head down on his desk instead of working on the lab. In the second class, there were two girls who continued to talk about subjects other than the lab. Most of the students are talking with each other, but they are also completing their work. These two, however, were not working on the lab at all. Each time that the teacher walked over to these students they would pick up their pens and pretend to work on the assignment, but then once the teacher was distracted by other students, they would go right back to their previous behaviors.
Reflection:
When responsible for twenty or more students at a time, it can be incredibly difficult to keep every student on task. In the two classes that I observed, almost all of the students were on task because the activity was interesting. Once I begin teaching, I would like to have the students working on labs and activities as much as possible because it keeps them much more interested than lecturing does. Had I observed a class where the students were simply taking notes, I guarantee I would have seen many more students off task. As for how the teacher dealt with the three students off task, she uses proximity as a minimizer of bad behavior. This can work well as a reminder to students who have fallen off task for a short amount of time, but since these three had no desire to work on the assignment, they would simply pretend to begin working until the teacher was distracted by other students. If this was happening in my class, I would try pairing these students up differently. The two girls who were chatting should be seperated. Once the desire to socialize is taken away, I believe they would have begun to work. My cooperating teacher allows the students to choose who they work with, but since these two girls are abusing the priviledge, they should be assigned to new partners. Also, the boy who was tired may benefit from a more aggressive partner who will ask him to help with the lab. His current partner was just working on the lab without asking for help. The fact that the other student had control of the lab could be part of the problem here. Perhaps the tired student feels as though his work and ideas do not matter, so why bother trying to help.
While observing student behavior this week in the middle school, I noticed that almost all of the students were involved and on task during the lesson. This weeks lesson was a lab where the students were measuring the forces needed to pull a rubber band specific distances. The first class to perform this lab had only one student off task. The second class had two students off task. In the first class, a young boy kept putting his head down on his desk instead of working on the lab. In the second class, there were two girls who continued to talk about subjects other than the lab. Most of the students are talking with each other, but they are also completing their work. These two, however, were not working on the lab at all. Each time that the teacher walked over to these students they would pick up their pens and pretend to work on the assignment, but then once the teacher was distracted by other students, they would go right back to their previous behaviors.
Reflection:
When responsible for twenty or more students at a time, it can be incredibly difficult to keep every student on task. In the two classes that I observed, almost all of the students were on task because the activity was interesting. Once I begin teaching, I would like to have the students working on labs and activities as much as possible because it keeps them much more interested than lecturing does. Had I observed a class where the students were simply taking notes, I guarantee I would have seen many more students off task. As for how the teacher dealt with the three students off task, she uses proximity as a minimizer of bad behavior. This can work well as a reminder to students who have fallen off task for a short amount of time, but since these three had no desire to work on the assignment, they would simply pretend to begin working until the teacher was distracted by other students. If this was happening in my class, I would try pairing these students up differently. The two girls who were chatting should be seperated. Once the desire to socialize is taken away, I believe they would have begun to work. My cooperating teacher allows the students to choose who they work with, but since these two girls are abusing the priviledge, they should be assigned to new partners. Also, the boy who was tired may benefit from a more aggressive partner who will ask him to help with the lab. His current partner was just working on the lab without asking for help. The fact that the other student had control of the lab could be part of the problem here. Perhaps the tired student feels as though his work and ideas do not matter, so why bother trying to help.